1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to woodworking and using jigs for routing mortises and dowel holes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Connecting pieces of wood is accomplished by a number of techniques. Historically, tenon and mortise and/or dowel connections have been popular with woodworkers for strength and stability. A tenon is a projection on the end of the timber for insertion into a mortise. Tenons are usually taller than they are wide. There are several kinds of tenons, including: stub tenons, through tenons, and loose tenons. A mortise is a cavity cut into a piece of timber to receive a tenon. There are several types of mortises. A mortise may have only three sides in which case there is neither a backside nor a top side (i.e., open mortise). Similarly, a mortise may have four sides: a top, a bottom, and two sides with an opening on the back end (i.e., through-mortise). Of course, there is the traditional “blind mortise”: a complete cavity in which no parts of the tenon are seen when the tenon enters the mortise.
In the past, tenons were made by chiseling away excess wood from the timber so that a tenon protruded from the original piece. Similarly, a mortise was created by chiseling out a hole from a second piece of wood for the tenon to fit into. With improvements in technology, routers allowed for efficient, accurate and timely cuts of tenons and mortises. These problems still exist, however, and are exacerbated when the woodworker wants to cut a large quantity of tenons and mortises, while ensuring consistent cuts. To assist woodworkers with consistency, jigs have become quite popular. A jig typically holds a piece of timber in place, while assisting the woodworker with the desired cut. At this time, there are very few jigs commercially available for efficiently cutting multiple mortises or dowels. With most available jigs, a woodworker needs ten minutes or more per mortise or tenon. The woodworker exerts a great deal of time resetting and realigning their timber in between cuts. The present invention, however, reduces the necessary time between cuts; increases consistency; and improves user experience.